An Evolution in Prydonian Study Halls
by ThereBeDragons17
Summary: A young Doctor finds himself sitting in study hall with nothing to do... hmmm... Inspired by (the annoying rules of) my new study hall proctor.


HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY, ANNA!

Disclaimer: you should know by now that no one on FanFiction owns anything interesting. I am no exception.

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><p>It was a shocking change in the history of how Prydonian study halls were executed.<p>

It was a shift in the temporal forces of 'spending time'.

It was the persecution and enslavement of Gallifreyan young.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was—

Theta stopped reading the note and scowled at Koschei from across the table, who grinned cockily back and ducked his head as Tutor Kastan walked past. Theta hid the note that documented their exchange of hyperboles and pretended to be doing his temporal physics homework.

In short, Tutor Kastan had swept into the room at the beginning of the period, informed them that he would be replacing Tutor Evelia, and that the students were not allowed to use the info-boxes, speak to each other, or listen to music. In addition, they must all sit at least two chairs apart from each other, thus to making passing notes much harder, if not as impossible as Tutor Kastan probably thought.

The soaring halls of the Prydonian library were currently occupied by 300+ students, all trying… no, wait, that's not how study hall works. _Most _trying to do homework of some sort. A fair number were doing other things that Theta couldn't distinguish, but it certainly didn't look like homework.

Rassilon, what was Magnus _doing?_

Tutor Kastan had seen it at the same time Theta had; Magnus had, as ever, invented a way around the rules. He had this time found a loophole in 'two chairs between each other', had stacked two chair on top of one another, and was reaching through the legs to desperately pass notes to Ushas, no doubt about chemistry homework. She was waving them away frantically as Tutor Kastan approached them.

As the Tutor reprimanded them, a flock of hand-written notes migrated around the classroom. When he turned back around, they were gone, hidden in pockets, the folds of robes, disguised among the armies of papers that littered desks, or sat upon.

Study hall dragged on and on. And on. And on some more.

A paper airplane hit Theta in the back of the head. It was such a shock that he almost cried out, but caught himself just in time. Thankfully Tutor Kastan wasn't looking. Theta swiveled in his seat, caught Jelpax's eye, and gave him what he thought was a perfect _what the heck? _look.

Jelpax mimed opening the airplane.

Theta waited for a moment when Kastan wasn't looking and dove under the table for the airplane, much to Koschei's amusement. With quick and quiet movements Theta unfolded the plane.

**MADE YOU LOOK**

_Damn you, _Theta thought, and made a face at Jelpax. He received a whack on the head with a book by Tutor Kastan, who happened to be walking past.

As soon as the Tutor was gone, Theta worked open his bag, which had, over the years, collected a wide variety of not only textbooks, but a detritus snack foods, wires, nuts and bolts, torn papers, notes scribbled in at least nine different intergalacticly recognized languages, and… somewhere near the top… ah _ha. _

Theta pulled out his latest invention. Tutor Borusa almost always saw him fiddling with them, but the older Timelord never believed that Theta Sigma's inventions ever came to anything. This one did. It was tiny, about the size of a pencil. A silver cylinder, with a red glass tip, and a single button on the side.

He had meant to save this for the next meeting of the Deca, but this moment seemed opportune.

Making sure that Tutor Kastan wasn't looking, Theta flicked the device over his left shoulder. It made an unexpected buzzing sound that reverberated through the whole room. Koschei looked up in surprise. All around the library, heads popped up.

The light above Jelpax's table exploded with a _bang. _The older boy swore loudly (and rather profanely) as shards of glass rained down around him, jumping up and knocking his chair back onto the stone floor.

The glass was designed to shatter without sharp edges, so Theta felt no guilt whatsoever as he slipped the device up his sleeve. Koschei gave him an emphatic grin as Tutor Kastan stormed over to Jelpax, reproaching him for swearing in a room where children as little as thirty were present.

"One weeks worth of temporal engineering homework if you take out all the lights in the room," Koschei offered.

Tutor Kastan never ended up figuring out what on Gallifrey caused all the lights to explode at the same time, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the two boys laughing slightly harder than the rest in the back corner.


End file.
